


One Cloud Feels Lonely

by phinnia



Series: Delta Quadrant Babies [8]
Category: Star Trek: Voyager
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-22
Updated: 2018-11-22
Packaged: 2019-08-27 20:55:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,888
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16709878
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phinnia/pseuds/phinnia
Summary: Title is a proverb from Watership Down.   We have Kathryn's Mom Voice and Tom thinking up all the reasons he's a terrible dad and passionate screaming, which is just a rumor.





	One Cloud Feels Lonely

They always said that it was mothers who had eyes in the backs of their heads, or who knew when their kids were crying.     
  
‘They’ didn’t know a damn thing, Tom thought to himself, because he would know that was Owen screaming from across the quadrant.  
  
He dropped what he was doing and started running across the field of the apparently harmless planet.  What the hell had he been _thinking_ , letting him wander off alone?    _Nothing_ was harmless in the Delta Quadrant.   Even harmless-looking fruits had unheard-of ways to kill you.     
  
“Owen!”   he shouted.   “Owen!”  
  
 _Damn it, where are you?_     He’d gone off this way, chasing some kind of furry animal …     
  
Tom heard the screaming again, but weaker, and turned, still running.   He ran into a clearing.  
  
The animals had seemed harmless, but he’d come on some kind of burrow.   And the mother animal had attacked.  Owen’s body was lying on the ground, bloody, covered in claw and bite marks.  
  
He looked up at his father and reached up with both hands.   “Daddy, it hurts.”     
  
Tom picked him up, biting his lip so hard he could taste the copper tang of blood in his own mouth.   “Paris to Voyager.  Two to beam directly to Sickbay, medical emergency.”  
  
Shit, shit, shit.   And he was _going_ to call his parents this afternoon, and for a change, he’d actually _almost_ been looking forward to it.  
  
  
Tom paced around Sickbay and counted the ways he was a horrible father.     
  
First, Owen was probably _dying_ , and second, the Doctor had waved him away, saying that medical personnel didn’t treat their own relatives for a reason.   And how was he going to explain this to _Harry_?   And the other two kids?   And the rest of the crew?   And his parents?  And _Kathryn_?  Oh, God, she could bust him right back to prison -  
  
“Mr. Paris.    _Mr. Paris_.”   A hypospray hissed against his neck.  “Sit down.   Your son is fine.   He’s on antibiotics and pain medication.   I just gave you a sedative.   Probably should have done that when you came in.”  
  
“Owen’s fine?”   Tom said numbly.  
  
“Yes, Mr. Paris.”  
  
“Really fine?”  
  
“ _Yes_ , Mr. Paris.   Really fine.   That animal was some sort of … cross between a wild rabbit and a red squirrel, but more agitated, clearly.  He’s responding well to the antibiotics.”  
  
“You didn’t give him methomaloxone?  Because Shannon’s allergic to it, and he might be -“  
  
“ _No,_ I did not.”   The Doctor sighs at Tom and shoos him towards Owen’s bed.   “I _would_ like to keep him here overnight.”  
  
Owen’s lying in the bed, looking up at Tom.   He reaches out his hand and takes Tom’s.   “Daddy, that aminal got me.”  
  
“I know it did.   I’m sorry, buckaroo.”   He ruffles Owen’s blonde hair.   “You really had me scared there.”  
  
“Where’s mommy?”  
  
“She’s in the city talking with boring people.   She’ll be here real soon.”  
  
Almost as if she’d been summoned, a transporter beam shimmered and the captain materialized into existence.  Her face was pale, and her hands were shaking slightly.  
  
“He’s _fine_.”   The Doctor said calmly before anyone else could get a word in.  “Do you need a sedative as well?    I already needed to administer one to Mr. Paris.”  
  
“No, I’m okay.”  She picked Owen up out of the bed and buried her face in his soft curls.   “Oh, never do that again, never ever.”  
  
Harry ran in the door.   “Oh, God, I just heard, I had to leave the girls with B’Elanna, what happened?”  
  
“He’s _fine_.”   Tom buried his face in Harry’s shoulder.   “It was just a dumb accident, it was all my fault.”  
  
“It was _not  your fault_ , _Thomas Eugene Paris_.”   Kathryn Janeway looked at him with eyes made of grey steel.   “You were doing something else and looked away for what, twenty seconds?   He ran off after an animal.   Don’t be an _idiot.”_  
  
Tom blinked.   “Er, yes _ma’am_.   Still, dumb accident.”  
  
“What she means is not to be any more of an idiot than _usual_.”   Harry murmured into Tom’s neck.   “But you _knew_ that.”     
  
Tom laughs shakily and tries to get his momentum back.   He can already feel the sedative starting to kick in now that the adrenaline rush is dropping out of his system.   “Uh, who’s on the call list for tomorrow?   Can I swap with them?”  
  
“Um … I think Chakotay has tomorrow, actually.”   Harry says.   “You can probably swap him your chip.   Why?”  
  
“Because Owen’s going to have to stay here tonight, and my parents are going to want to see all of their grandbabies at once.”    Tom takes a deep breath and tries to quiet his heart.   “And then Owen will have a good story, right?”  
  
“Yeah!”   Owen nods.  
  
“Okay, you wait here with mommy.”   Tom gives Owen a kiss on the forehead.  “I have to go do some boring stuff.   But I’ll be back, okay, and I’ll bring you some fun stuff from home?”  
  
“‘Kay.”     
  
  
Tom was halfway to B’Elanna and Chakotay’s place when he actually ran straight into B’Elanna herself.  
  
“Well, Owen must be all right, because if he weren’t, you wouldn’t be here.”   She hugged him with bone-breaking fierceness.   “What happened?   Harry just dropped the girls on us and ran out.”  
  
“He got attacked by some kind of animal.   It was kind of a cross between a red squirrel and a rabbit, the Doc said … he probably would’ve been okay, but he ran into a nest and the mother got pissed.”  
  
“Well, parents _do_.”   She looks kind of annoyed herself.   “My mother was always pretty fierce.”  
  
“I’ll bet.”     Tom chuckles and smiles at her, sighing.   “How are you?   How’s the pregnancy going?”  
  
“Oh, fine.  My back feels awful, but I get all the free back rubs I want, so that’s not so bad.”   she smiles back, and they turn around and walk back to her place.  
  
“You think Chakotay will swap call chips with me?   The Doctor’s keeping Owen overnight, and my mom and dad will want to see all of their grandkids.”  
  
“Tom, I’m _sure_ he will.”  she shrugs and waves her hand, as though it’s not even a question.  
  
“Besides, he hit me with a sedative.”  
  
“The Doctor did?”  
  
“Yup.   I deserved it, though.”  
  
B’Elanna opens the door to her quarters.   “Owen’s fine now, so you can stop worrying.”   she says.  
  
“Oh, good.”  Chakotay says, coming out of the back room.   “I _think_ they’re asleep.   I hope so, I’m running out of stories.”  
  
“I hope not.”   B’Elanna laughs.  “You’ll have to learn new ones.”    
  
“Well, in particular I’m running out of stories that involve princesses and starship engineers.”   he says with a chuckle.   “But those are hard to come up with on short notice.”  
  
Tom smiles.   “Thank you _so_ much for watching them.   I really appreciate it.”  
  
“It was nothing.  Good practice.”  Chakotay shrugs.   “How’s Owen?”  
  
“He’s fine now.   The Doctor gave him antibiotics and painkillers and he’s keeping him overnight.”  
  
“And Tom got a sedative.”  B’Elanna says mischeviously.  
  
“Your turn will come eventually.”   Chakotay smiles at Tom.   “In my family, it was my mother.   If her arm was cut off by a Cardassian terrorist with a chainsaw, she would probably sew it back on herself, but if any of the kids were hurt, she’d be panicking, trying to get us to the nearest doctor.”  
  
Tom feels a whole new level of understanding for the first officer now.   He smiles back.   “I can swap call chips with you.  I’m kind of tired, not up to calling my parents tonight.”  
  
“Sure.   Seven can watch the girls, B’Elanna can put our call through.”  
  
“Go home.”   B’Elanna says, still smirking at Tom.   “We’ll bring the girls back in the morning, okay?  Do terrible things to Harry, cause some sort of awful rumor.   Things are getting boring, the ship could use a little scandal.”  
  
Tom grins at her.   “Anything you hear about passionate screaming coming from deck nine is just a rumor and not to be believed.”  
  
“I’ll notify Tuvok immediately.”   she says, with a twinkle in her eye.    
  
  
Tom goes back home and gets some stuff - Owen’s stuffed dog and some coloring things, and some music for him to listen to, because the Doctor’s opera fixation is not fit for humans, never mind children - and he takes it back to Sickbay.   Kathryn’s still there, watching over him.   Owen’s already asleep, lying on his stomach like he usually does, mouth open and slack, drooling into the pillow.  
  
“I’m glad you were there.”  She gives Tom a hug.    “I gave you and Harry tomorrow’s shift off.   Sleep in.   I’ll watch over our little boy tonight.”  
  
“Are you _sure_?”  
  
“Yes.”   She gives him that same look again, and he laughs slightly and tucks the dog in beside Owen and goes back home with Harry.  
  
“The girls are being kept overnight, and we are being _encouraged_ to start some sort of awful rumor.”   he murmurs in Harry’s ear as he opens the door.   “B’Elanna says the ship could use one.   I already told her to ignore the noise complaints.”  
  
“Oh, good.”   Harry laughs, and bites Tom’s throat in the dark.   “You get kind of loud when the kids aren’t around.”  
  
“Yeah, I do.”  
  
  
The girls came back all happy about how they’d had banana pancakes with Auntie B’Elanna and Uncle Chakotay, and Owen came back all happy about how he got to spend time with his mommy, and Tom was just happy because he got to have uninterrupted sex _and_ wake up without hearing something making a strange noise from the kids’ bedroom or seeing the cat being pushed around in the girls’ doll carriage _again_ and he actually got to have coffee _and_ a shower that lasted more than five minutes.   With his husband.   
  
Finally he manages to get the kids all in nice clothes and they go down to the Astrometrics Lab.  
  
“Are we gonna meet your mommy and daddy now?”   Shannon asks Tom seriously.  “Like we did with mommy’s last week, and Harry’s before?”  
  
“Yup.   We can’t talk for too long, remember?   It’s only three minutes.”    Tom reminds them.   “Can you all see?”  
  
They nod.     
  
“Okay.   Now let Seven put our call through, okay?   And then you can say hi.   But not all at once.”  
  
Seven puts their call through.    Tom waits, fidgeting nervously with his wedding ring and watching the screen.     
  
It is digital snow, and then suddenly it is his father’s face.  
  
“Tom.”   His father actually smiles broadly.   “Your mother’s not here, but I’m recording this for her.   You must be Harry.”  
  
“Yes, sir.”   Harry, always nervous, salutes.  
  
“Oh, stop that, you’re family now.  Call me Owen.”    He looks at the kids with dark, amused eyes.   “One of you is named Owen, I’ve heard.”  
  
“That’s me!”   Owen jumps up and down.   “Yesterday I got ‘tacked by a aminal.”  
  
“Yes, he did, and he scared me to death.”   Tom says ruefully, hardly thinking.  
  
His father looks at him with a sparkle in his eyes.   “You might understand a little better now why I was always shouting.”  
  
Tom thinks back on his childhood, and yes … he does, considering some of the shit he did when he was about Owen’s size.  And older.   Oh, God, the things he has to look forward to.   “Um.   I’m sorry?”  
  
“Don’t be sorry.”   His father says solemnly.   “Just keep them safe.   Now, which one of you girls is Julia?   That's your grandma's name, Julia.”  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading. :)


End file.
